Are we in the 7th Age?

[WizardKing]

I read some where that we are currently in the 7th age or something like that in the annals of ardra> just like when george lucas found the book of yoda he found to write for star wars

 

[jallan]

From Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, letter 211:

I could have fitted things in with greater versimilitude, if the story had not become too far developed, before the question ever occurred to me. I doubt if there would have been much gain; and I hope the, evidently long but undefined, gap* in time between the Fall of Barad-dûr and our Days is sufficient for 'literary credibility', even for readers acquainted with what is known or surmised of 'pre-history'.

* I imagine the gap to be about 6000 years : that is we are now at the end of the Fifth Age, if the Ages were of about the same length as S.A. and T.A. But they have, I think, quickened; and I imagine we are actually at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh.

Of course this really doesn't fit very well.

I think Tolkien, knowing that the first interpretable written texts date to sometime after 3000 BCE, that is 5000 years ago, just added another thousand years to bring the history back to the fall of Barad-dûr.

The real problem is the change in the geography of Europe, a change involving not only the coastline but entire mountain ranges. Tolkien never explained how this great change came about and we are probably not supposed to ask.

He notes he really did not fit in the geography properly. But then, even if he had done so, one still could not actually go to the places where he would have placed Minas Tirith, for example, and expect to be able to excavate them.

An impossible geography works well enough.

However somewhere in the HoME series Tolkien refers to at least one ice age following the fall of Númenor.

That would put his three Ages even farther back, and maybe increase the plausibility of something like the story actually occurring.

Since the Ages are ended by great events, if Tolkien thinks we are either at the end of the Sixth Age, or in the Seventh, we might ask what events Tolkien thinks might have marked off these later Ages.

Probably either the birth or resurrection of Christ would be one point of demarcation.

But Tolkien probably did not want to make some things explicit to readers or to himself.

 

[Confusticated]

That is interesting.

by jallen
...we might ask what events Tolkien thinks might have marked off these later Ages.

It seems that he might have had some things in mind, but if he didn't why else might have have said that he thinks the ages have quickened?
I think he might (keep in mind that I have read very little of the Letters) not have been sure himself about which events marked the end of the 4-6th ages. The only reason I think this is that it seems reasonable to me that someone would figure that as technology advances it puts it's self into a position to advance at an even faster rate... or so it seems to me. The world moves faster as technology advances.
That thought is really the only thing which causes me to think that Tolkien may have said the ages quicken without being sure of the events that mark the ends of them.

But constant acceleration does not necessarily mean that the ages would become shorter... at least, it does not seem so to me.
More events would happen in time, but maybe the events wouldn't be outstanding enough to define the end of an age.